Pearl Street Station was Thomas Edison's first commercial

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

in the United States. It was located at 255–257 Pearl Street in the Financial District of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

in New York City, just south of Fulton Street on a site measuring . The station was built by the Edison Illuminating Company, under the direction of Francis Upton, hired by

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

History

Pearl Street Station consumed coal for fuel; it began with six 100 kW dynamos, and it started generating electricity on September 4, 1882, serving an initial load of 400 lamps to 82 customers. By 1884, Pearl Street Station was serving 508 customers with 10,164 lamps. Electricity was supplied at 110V DC.Pearl Street Station from the IEEE Global History Network
The station was originally powered by custom-made Porter-Allen high-speed steam engines designed to provide 175

horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are t ...

at 700 rpm, but these proved to be unreliable with their sensitive governors. They were removed and replaced with new engines from Armington & Sims that proved to be much more suitable for Edison's dynamos. Pearl Street Station served what was known as the "First District" (bounded clockwise from north by Spruce Street, the

East River The East River is a saltwater Estuary, tidal estuary or strait in New York City. The waterway, which is not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island, ...

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

, and Nassau Street). This was the world's first underground urban network. The district, so named because of its importance in the history of electric power, contained several other power stations such as the Excelsior Power Company Building. The station burned down in 1890, destroying all but one dynamo that is now kept in the Greenfield Village Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. It was rebuilt, and ran till 1895, when it was decommissioned, since larger and more efficient plants had been built nearby.

Scale models

In 1929 the Edison Company constructed three scale working models of the station. When a button was pushed, a motor turned the engines, generators, and other equipment in the model. A set of lamps connected to labelled buttons identified the various areas of the building. Cut-outs in the side of the model building allowed examination of the boilers on the first level, reciprocating steam engines and dynamos on the reinforced second level, and the control and test gear on the third and fourth levels. The models were constructed to a scale of 1:24 and were 62 inches long, 34 inches high and 13 inches wide. The models still exist and are on display at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center is a historical museum in Washington, D.C. It collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and m ...

in Washington, D.C.; at the

Consolidated Edison Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison (stylized as conEdison) or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 ...

Learning Center in Long Island City, New York; and at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Up to 31 people worked on constructing the models which took about 6 months to complete.

References

External links

Pearl Street Station from the IEEE Global History NetworkIndustrial Motor Power Corp., What is Cogeneration?
*Edison Electric Institute
''History of the Electric Power Industry''
. Retrieved 13 April 2005. *Smithsonian Institution

Retrieved 13 April 2005. {{Coord, 40, 42, 28, N, 74, 00, 17, W, type:landmark_source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title Coal-fired power stations in New York (state) Consolidated Edison Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan Energy infrastructure completed in 1882 Financial District, Manhattan Former coal-fired power stations in the United States Former power stations in New York City

History

Scale models

See also

References

External links